Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters

Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters is The First Series in The Yu-Gi-Oh! Universe it Ran From (April 18,2000 - September 29,2004) Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters is Followed By a New Series Entitled Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters also as One Movie Know as the Pymind of Light And upcoming Movie Will Air in 2016.

Story
The story follows Yugi Muto, a boy who managed to complete an ancient Egyptian artifact known as the Millennium Puzzle, which led to him to inherit another spirit known only as Yami Yugi. After defeating his rival, Seto Kaiba, in a game of Duel Monsters, Yugi is approached by a man named Maximillion Pegasus, who uses the power of another Millennium Item, the Millennium Eye, to kidnap the soul of his grandfather. Joined by his friends, Joey Wheeler, Tristan Taylor, and Téa Gardner, Yugi enters Pegasus' Duelist Kingdom tournament, battling against many opponents in order to reach Pegasus and defeat him, freeing his grandfather's soul. Later on, Yugi learns that the other Yugi dwelling within him is actually a nameless Pharaoh from Egyptian times, who must remember who he is. As such, Yugi enters the Battle City tournament, held by Kaiba, in order to obtain the three Egyptian God[[ cards and the Millennium Items needed to unveil the Pharaoh's past. Along the way, Yugi encounters even stronger opponents, including the wielder of the Millennium Rod, [[Marik Ishtar. He also gets sucked into a virtual world run by Kaiba's adoptive father, Gozaburo. After obtaining all three Egyptian God cards, Yugi and his friends find themselves under attack by the order of Orichalcos, who aim to gather souls in order to revive the ancient dragon, Leviathan. Upon obtaining all the Millennium Items, the Pharaoh is sent back to Egyptian times to relive his past life, going up against his nemesis, Yami Bakura who resides in his friend Ryo Bakura through the Millennium Ring, who plots to rewrite history using the power of the evil Zorc. After the Pharaoh manages to defeat Bakura, and his friends help him learn his true name, Atem. He and Yugi take part in one final duel, so that Atem can return to the afterlife.

Characters

 * Yugi Muto is the main protagonist of the story. He wears the Millennium Puzzle (千年パズル Sennen Pazuru?), one of the seven Millennium Items and an ancient Egyptian artifact holding the spirit of an ancient Egyptian pharaoh. When Yugi is playing a game or under stress, he becomes possessed by the 3,000-year-old (5,000 in the English anime) spirit inside the Millennium Puzzle, known as Yami (Dark) Yugi, changing his personality to a cold and confident person. Initially, Yugi could be described as soft-spoken, timid, meek, and shy, but as the series progresses, his character develops to the point where he has a much bigger presence and becomes more outspoken. He fears the other personality inside him at first, however, as the narrative progresses, he grows a strong bond with his other self and considers his other soul a close and valuable friend. One defining character moment for him was when he defeated an antagonist without Dark Yugi's help, Ryuji Otogi, in a game of Dungeon Dice Monsters (DDD in the manga) under bleak circumstances, proving that he is truly worthy of being the Millennium Puzzle's wielder.


 * Dark Yugi is The Spirit of the Millennium Puzzle in the English anime, later referred to as just The Pharaoh or Nameless Pharaoh in the Japanese anime) is the second personality inhabiting Yugi's body, a 3,000-year-old gambling spirit of an ancient Pharaoh who resides in the Millennium Puzzle. Like his host, he shares a fondness for games and gaming culture, often referred to in the manga as Game King (遊戯王 Yūgiō?, King of Games in most English translations). He appears whenever Yugi's in trouble, challenging bullies and criminals to occult judgment games called Shadow Games (闇のゲーム Yami no Gēmu?) and enforces Penalty Games (罰ゲーム Batsu Gēmu?) to enact ironic justice (the default powers of a Millennium Item wielder). A defining character moment for him is when he decides to stop using them after his battle with Pegasus, who tells him that the Millennium Items contain an evil intelligence.[3] In the second series anime, Dark Yugi comes off as a lot more merciful as a character because this subplot is written out. As the story progresses to the point where he's more than just a split personality, he becomes more and more independent of Yugi and develops a desire to find out who he is and where he came from.

Even compared to Yugi, he seems to have the most knowledge on gaming and gambling culture within the whole cast, noticeably when he explains Ryuji Otogi's bar bet games to the normal Yugi, who noticed that his games didn't feel like they were fair. In addition, the original manga's version of Dark Yugi seems to have a somewhat dark sense of humor in his dialogue, even after his decision to stop inflicting Penalty Games. This personality trait is an aspect that is retained in his first series anime version. However, in the second series anime, Dark Yugi is somewhat more serious and loses much of the dark sense of humor he originally had in the manga.

Yugi and his friends eventually find out that he is the spirit of an ancient Pharaoh who has long forgotten his name. At the end of the manga, it's revealed that his name as Pharaoh was Atem (アテム Atemu?), who sealed his soul into the Puzzle along with the Great God of Evil, Zorc Necrophades.


 * Joey Wheeler is Yugi's best friend. Initially nothing more than a street thug and former bully; throwing Yugi's Millennium Puzzle piece into the swimming pool and disgusted at how unmanly he was. When Ushio decides to be Yugi's self-imposed bodyguard in order to extort money from him, he beats up Jonouchi and Honda, Yugi stands up for them, and it's then that Jonouchi realizes that he was jealous of Yugi's "treasure" all along, and later on that night, he retrieves the Millennium Puzzle piece and brings it back to Yugi's house, where Yugi completes it and challenges Ushio to the first Shadow Game of the series. Jonouchi is touched by Yugi's behavior towards him and they become loyal friends, forming his own "treasure."

Jonouchi is good at fist fighting and is usually able to take on people bigger than him, such as Bandit Keith (in the anime, this quality is underplayed and he gets beaten up by Bandit Keith instead). Though not exactly the best gamer in Domino, he develops a better liking to them thanks to Yugi, and he's managed to use his strong points to help Yugi come through in earlier story lines. Later on, he develops an interest in the Duel Monsters game, the latest fad at the time. Though unskilled at first, with Yugi's help, he trains for the Duelist Kingdom tournament in order to free Sugoroku's soul from the portable TV and save his sister's eyesight; progressively getting better throughout the series to the point where he could be called a match for Dark Yugi. Jonouchi is shown to have a very kind heart, selfless and caring, considerate, and eager willingness to help and save those he deeply cares for and loves, but he also demonstrates a near lack of modesty and can be rather rash at times, making him a source of comic relief. Jonouchi notes that, before he met Yugi, he was never really motivated for anything. As the story progressed, he learned to channel his anger into games instead of his fists. Joey is voiced by Wayne Grayson in the English dub portraying the character with a New York style accent to reflect how the Japanese character often left out honorifics.


 * Seto Kaiba Seto discovers that the grandfather of his classmate, Yugi Mutou, owns the rare "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" card. Kaiba steals the card from Yugi by switching it with a fake copy. Yugi recognizes the card for a fake and duels Kaiba to get it back. Yugi, Honda Hiroto and Katsuya Jonouchi were beaten up by Kaiba's guards until the Darker Yugi from within the Millennium Puzzle confronts Kaiba and challenges to a Shadow Game with the card as a prize. Although Kaiba nearly wins, the magical nature of the game prevents the stolen Blue-Eyes from obeying him, and Kaiba is defeated, suffering a temporary Penalty Game—an illusion of being killed by monsters.

Episodes
Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters Episodes